


Family

by TiffanyF



Series: Building a family [2]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: AU, M/M, Mpreg, ooc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-10
Updated: 2013-01-09
Packaged: 2017-11-24 08:22:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/632383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiffanyF/pseuds/TiffanyF
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and Rory visit Brian and Amy. Set after "Rebuilding an Empire" and I would strongly urge you to read that one first. Don't own, don't claim, no money made here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In the TARDIS

The Doctor was working on the console when the sound of crying caught his attention. "Rory?"

"I think she's hungry," Rory said as he came into the control room, Sarah Rose in his arms. "I just changed her so she's dry and she's not sleepy."

"Might just be cranky," the Doctor said. He took the three month old with a fond smile. "What's wrong, Sarah Rose? Really? That's easy enough to fix, now isn't it?" He looked up. "She wants to go for a swim."

"You know, Doctor, I still don't believe that you can speak baby," Rory said. He grinned. "But I'm up for a swim. Where's the pool?"

"Still in the library, as far as I know. I haven't gone looking for it recently, well, as recent as it gets in here. Onward, Rory, let's see if we can find the pool for our daughter."

Rory trailed just behind the Doctor as they went up the stairs and into the corridors of the TARDIS. "Doctor, I was wondering something?"

"Yes, of course it's perfectly safe to let her go in the pool. We'll be holding her and she won't be in any danger."

"That's good, but not what I was wondering."

"Oh, what is it?"

"Could we maybe go and visit my dad?"

The Doctor stopped and turned to look at Rory. "You think that Amy will have gone and spoken to him and are worried about what he might be thinking."

"Yeah. But I also want him to meet Sarah Rose. He'll be thrilled to find out he has a granddaughter."

"Do you want him to know what's happening to you?"

"Not yet." Rory leaned in and kissed the Doctor softly. "I will spend eternity with you, Doctor, but I don't know how to tell my father that's what I'm going to do. He's going to be upset enough as it is, me leaving Amy like I did. You showed him the world, but I don't know how he's going to react to knowing that I'm with you now."

"How are you going to explain Sarah Rose?" the Doctor asked. He turned and continued on towards the pool. "It's one thing to tell your father that you've left your wife for a 1200 year old alien male, Rory. It's another to explain to your father that your older alien lover can give birth."

Rory sighed. "Don't forget, 2000 years of waiting at the Pandorica, Doctor," he said. "Technically I'm older than you."

"Yes, technically, but that's not the point here, Rory." The Doctor pushed open a door and fell into the pool. "Thank you, sexy."

"Doctor, is Sarah Rose okay?"

"She's fine, Rory." The Doctor handed the baby up to his lover and pushed his hair out of his face. "I think the TARDIS thought I needed to cool off. But she would never do anything to hurt the baby."

"Okay then I'll meet you on the other side and you can change into you real swimming suit."

"Oh, very funny, Rory. Very witty." The Doctor started swimming towards the shallow end and the changing area. "You try falling into a pool completely dressed and see how it feels. I'm just glad the sonic screwdriver is water-proof. I would have to have to build another one, but then again if I did build another one, I could give it a setting for wood. That would be cool."

"Doctor, get out and change before you drown yourself," Rory said. He put Sarah Rose down on one of the towels and started to change her into one of the small swimsuits the TARDIS had in the wardrobe. "Do I even want to know why the TARDIS has all these baby clothes in her?"

The Doctor hung up his coat and started to undress. "I had a little over nine months to shop for her, Rory. I knew she was a girl almost from the moment she was created. I have a spaceship that is also a time machine. It wasn't hard to get well-stocked on baby things."

"I still wish I could have been here for her birth."

"You will be for the next one," the Doctor said. He let his pants drop to the ground and turned around to find his swimsuit. "Blimey, Rory, not in front of the baby."

"You can't show me your naked body and expect to come away completely unscathed, Doctor," Rory said with a nip to the Doctor's bare neck. "When she goes down for her nap, you're mine."

A soft moan was his only answer. Rory smiled and turned his lover around, catching the Doctor's mouth in a warm kiss. The Doctor opened for him and they only broke apart when Sarah Rose gurgled. The Doctor smiled. "She says we can kiss later, but she wants to be back in the water."

"I still don't believe you can speak baby," Rory said. "You go on with her, I'll be there in a second."

"I speak five billion languages, Rory. Why shouldn't baby be one of them?" The Doctor adjusted his swimsuit and picked up Sarah Rose. "I can also speak horse, cat, dinosaur and hawk."

"So you were really speaking to Tricy, not just doing what most animal lovers do?"

"Her accent was horrible, but we managed." The Doctor paused when the water was just up to his chest and slowly sank down to float. "I've never actually tried to swim while holding a baby, although I did swim a lot before she was born. I wonder if she's remembering that?"

Rory splashed out into the water and swam out next to his family. "Doctor, she's three months old. I find it harder to believe that she thinks of anything beyond food, sleep and love."

"She's a smart girl, Rory. Well, she'd have to be, given who her fathers are. You also have to remember that she's a time lady, so she'll be more advanced than a human baby of the same age group."

"Let me have her for a second." Rory stood up and took Sarah Rose carefully, resting her on his forearm and moving her through the water, a steadying hand on her back. "She has her own pool, that's pretty cool, Doctor."

"There's a horse too, when she gets older."

"What?"

"Did I never mention the horse?"

"No, you never mentioned the horse."

The Doctor grinned. "I got him back in my tenth regeneration, from a ship that had portals back onto France," he said. "He's in the garden, wherever it is now."

"You lost a horse on a spaceship."

"No, I lost a garden on a spaceship. It'll turn up when we need it to. Things generally do, after all. Now, the real question is, when do you want to go and see your father?"

"As soon as possible. I want to make sure he knows what really happened and why I made the choice I did."

"No, Rory, I mean when do you want to see him? Five minutes after you last saw Amy? Ten? A day? Time machine, we can go whenever you want."

"Oh, right. The next morning? I mean, I'd like to go sooner, but we were still there and I really don't want to risk changing what all we did that night."

The Doctor blushed. "That was a very enlightening evening," he said. "I didn't think it was possible for humans to bend that way." He swam over and kissed Rory softly. "The next morning it is. Do you want to do this alone?"

"No. I want you there with Sarah Rose. We're a family now, Doctor, and I want my dad to see the truth behind that."  
**********

Brian was in his kitchen making breakfast when he heard a faint noise that he recognized, but couldn't place. He was tired. He'd been up most of the night trying to comfort his daughter-in-law after his son left her. Amy was devastated and nothing Brian had said seemed to have made any difference. He jumped when he heard the front door open. "Dad?"

"Rory."

"Yeah, sorry, should have rung ahead but we didn't know exactly what time we would be getting here. How early is it?" Rory peeked into the kitchen.

"Eight. I was up all night with Amy. Rory, I'm very disappointed in you."

"Dad, yeah, I know but it's complicated. Really, really complicated. Can we talk?"

As upset as he was, Rory was still his son and he wouldn't ever turn him away. "Of course we can. Rory, I thought I raised you better than this."

Rory came into the kitchen fully and Brian was struck at a change in his son's face. It was subtle, but something was different. "You raised me to do what's right, Dad, and to always follow my heart," he said. "Look, there's something that Amy and I never told you about. We were separated for six months and had all the divorce paperwork filled out. I thought it was really over between us, that I had failed as a husband, somehow, and my life was over."

"Amy told me you left her for the Doctor. Is that true?"

"Yeah. I'm bisexual, Dad. I figured out that much at school. Hell, for years Amy thought I was gay," Rory said. He sat down and took the offered coffee with a smile. "The night Amy chased me out of the house, I went out and drank too much. I just wanted to forget for a while, forget that the woman I loved didn't want me anymore. That I had failed. While I was looking for a hotel, I found the TARDIS and spent the night with the Doctor. It just turns out there was something I didn't know about him."

"What was that?"

"Doctor?"

Brian looked up at the alien as he walked into the kitchen, body language screaming that he was unsure of his welcome. "Is that a baby?" Brian asked.

"This is your granddaughter, Brian, this is Sarah Rose," the Doctor replied.

"How is that possible?"

"I'm an alien," the Doctor said with a small smile. "Would you like to hold her?"

"A granddaughter," Brian smiled. He stood up and took the baby from the Doctor. "How old is she?"

"Three months," Rory said. "Dad, I couldn't just leave her. Or the Doctor. They need me." He held up a hand. "I know, I know Amy needs me too. I couldn't think of a way to make everyone happy without causing a time paradox and risking the universe."

The Doctor looked up. "Brian, I gave Rory a choice. I told him that he was free to go back to Amy. I tried to hide Sarah Rose from him. I know how much they love each other. Amy is my best friend and I still need to go and talk to her, but I'm scared to. I'm scared to go and see my best friend because I'm afraid she'll hate me for taking Rory away."

"Doctor, you have a child and you need to protect her," Brian said. "I don't understand how and don't really want details on it, but you're a parent and that's the most important job in the universe."

"I know." The Doctor sighed. "I've had children in the past, oh, this was centuries ago now. They all died in the war, every one of them. Sarah Rose is a sign of hope, Brian. Rory wanted to let you meet her. He wanted to explain everything to you. That's why we're here."

"Did you tell Amy about the baby, Rory?" Brian asked.

"No. God no. How could I explain that when I wasn't even sure what was happening?"

"I can understand your point, Rory," Brian said. "Doctor, you should go talk to Amy."

"How can I? I did the one thing I promised never to do."

"You'll have to talk to her at some point." Brian shifted Sarah Rose to his other arm and sat back down. "I don't blame you for not wanting to take Sarah Rose with you. Babies shouldn't be exposed to fighting, and we all know what a temper Amy has. But it's something you need to do, Doctor. Rory can stay here and we'll talk. I'm still upset, but I'm not mad, Rory. You made an impossible decision and I'm proud of you for facing up to the consequences of it."

"Doctor, are you going to be okay?" Rory asked.

The Doctor tried to smile. "I'm always okay, Rory. Remember, I'm the king of okay."

"That's still a rubbish title."

"You're right, it is. Let me feed Sarah Rose and then I'll go see Amy. I'll think of something to say that will keep her from punching me long enough to say I'm so sorry."  
**********

The Doctor walked to Amy's house to give himself a little bit of time to think. He knew that leaving Sarah Rose behind with her father was the smart thing to do, but he hated being away from her. He was still jumpy enough to worry that something would happen to her, someone would find out who she was and try to take her away to hold ransom against him. But Rory had the TARDIS and knew the trick to open the doors without a key, so they would be safe where they were. Safer than with him at the moment, especially once Amy saw him again.

He touched the picture of himself with Rory and Sarah Rose that he had tucked in his pocket next to his sonic screwdriver and closed his eyes for courage before lifting his hand to knock on the blue door.

He stepped back out of punching range and swallowed hard. The Doctor had faced down a lot of things in his long life, but this was the hardest thing he had ever done. He heard footsteps inside and stood up as straight as he could. The only problem was, he didn't know what he was going to say when Amy opened the door.


	2. With Amy

"You are about the last person I want to see right now, Doctor."

The Doctor ducked his head, fringe falling into his right eye. "Amelia Pond. One of the strongest women I know. Brian said I should come and talk to you," he said. "If you would rather shout at me, then that's fine too."

"You took Rory away from me, Doctor. You gave him back and then took him away again. How am I supposed to forgive that?" Amy turned and walked back into the house. "Get in here, I'm not fighting in the doorway."

"I wish we didn't have to fight at all." The Doctor shut the door behind him and followed Amy into the lounge. "Amy, what all did Rory tell you last night?"

"How long has he been with you, Doctor? How long have the two of you been gone?"

"I'm not sure. We've been in the time vortex since we left."

"Start explaining then."

The Doctor walked around the coffee table to an area where he could walk while he was talking. He was filled with far too much nervous energy to even try and sit down. "Where do you want me to start, Amy?" he asked softly. "The night that Rory came to me drunk and depressed because you kicked him out of the house? The time we spent with the daleks when I wanted nothing more than to see you back with Rory? Or on the spaceship with the dinosaurs?"

"Start at the beginning."

"I'm still not sure what Rory told you, Amelia, but he did find me that night. I'm always where I need to be, isn't that what the TARDIS maintains? Maybe she broke the helmic regulator to get me to that point, but yes, I was still here that night. I tried to tell him to come back home, to talk to you, to try and put your lives back together, but he was heartbroken," the Doctor said. "He didn't tell me what happened between you, just that you kicked him out and told him never to come back. We slept together and then I did what I thought was best. I buried the memory of me deeply in his mind and left him behind in a hotel. I hoped that he would be able to get back together with you."

"There was a reason I did that, Doctor. Do you think it was easy? I've loved Rory since we were children, but I never once thought I would have a chance with him. Getting married was one of the best days of my life," Amy said. "But Rory has always wanted children, and I can't have any. I wanted him happy, so I decided to sacrifice myself and my happiness to let him find someone new."

"He didn't want anyone new, Pond, he wanted you."

"Then why did he leave me?" Amy shouted.

"Didn't I seem different to you, on the dalek ship?" the Doctor asked.

"Different?"

"Yes, different. Not myself. Strange, well, stranger than usual."

"No."

The Doctor sighed. "Rory thought I did, but he blamed it on the daleks. I admit I'm never my best when I'm around them. There's too much pain and hate buried within me to ever be myself with them." He paused and looked at Amy. "Then I vanished for ten months with not even a phone call. Yes, Amy, there was something wrong, but not like you thought."

"Then what was it?"

"I was carrying Rory's child," the Doctor said.

"You what?" Amy shrieked.

"A beautiful girl," the Doctor said with a fond smile. "And one that Rory didn't know about. I never told either of you about that part of my genetic heritage, mainly because it didn't concern you, but I also thought that it would make you hate me. A male that can have children? I'm an alien, Amelia, perhaps more alien than you ever realized."

"No, wait, you had a baby," Amy said. "That's impossible. There's no way you could have a baby."

"It is complicated, and unusual, but all time lords can carry children." He took out the picture and put it on the table in front of Amy. "We took this last night. Rory wanted a copy for Brian to have. Her name is Sarah Rose, Amy."

"That's impossible."

"When Rory found out the truth he was torn apart. He loves you deeply and wanted to stay with you, but also felt drawn to me and our daughter." The Doctor finally knelt down, staying out of hitting distance, but close enough that he could look into Amy's eyes. "We tried to think of any way that he could be in two places at once, but every option we thought of would have created a paradox and risked the universe, and you know that I can't allow that to happen. I told Rory that he could stay with you and I would think no worse of him. Sarah Rose and I would be happy together if he wanted to remain with you."

"But you can give him what I can't. Children."

"He loves her," the Doctor said with a soft smile. "I never wanted to hurt you, Amy. I would have rewritten time if it was possible to do it and not risk the universe so you could be happy. Rory and I both love you, you have to know that."

"You still took him away."

"He took himself, Amy. Don't belittle the pain Rory went through making this choice. He's still beating himself up for causing you pain. We both are."

"So what happens when he gets old?"

The Doctor leaned back. "Ah, yes, about that," he said. "That was very mean of you, Amelia Pond, to tell him that I would use him and desert him. Rory was in a panic when he came back to the TARDIS that night."

Amy snorted. "It's what you always do."

"Because I've never had another choice."

"What are you talking about now?"

"Humans age and they die," the Doctor said. "I've loved all my companions through all my long lives, but I was never able to keep any of them with me. Save this one time. Rory will no longer age and he will never die. He'll regenerate."

"What?"

"He's becoming a time lord," the Doctor said. "He'll never be a full-blood, that takes more power than I have, and some rather nasty surgery, but he'll have some of the powers of the time lords. And Sarah Rose is a time lady."

"So, what you're telling me is that you've done something to my husband to turn him into a creature like you so you can always be together?" Amy demanded. "Does he even know what you're doing to him?"

"Yes. He chose it."

"He chose to become an alien?"

"He did."

"Then he will never come back to me," Amy said.

"Amy, I'm so very sorry that it's come to this," the Doctor said softly. "From the moment I met you, I have wanted nothing more than to make you happy. I tried to convince Rory to come home, that sleeping together was a bad idea, but in the end, it was what we both wanted. Sarah Rose is hope, Amy. She's hope for my people. For the universe."

Amy wiped her eyes. "It's always about the universe. You stole my husband, Doctor," she said. "You've left me behind to deal with the fall-out from everything while Rory is gone. You've turned him into an alien and started a family. I think I'm allowed to be furious right now."

"Yes, of course you are," the Doctor said. "But under that anger, Amelia, I hope you will be able to remember that Rory and I both love you deeply. You know how to contact me and we'll be visiting Brian at regular intervals to let him spend time with his granddaughter. I hope that you will be able to move on, Amelia."

"How?"

"You're one of the strongest women I know. If anyone can manage it, it's you." The Doctor stood up and picked up the picture. "There's a woman named Sarah Jane Smith. She was once my companion and she lives down in London. Give her a call if you need to talk to someone who has been through something similar. I once left her behind too."

The Doctor walked quietly out of the lounge and shut the front door behind him. He had touched so many lives over the years, so many people in so many ways, but he wondered why they all seemed to feel such pain in the end. Or, maybe, he was the cause of the pain. With a sigh, he turned and headed back towards Brian's house.


	3. In the TARDIS again

"Dad, you need to take a nap, and I think Sarah Rose is getting hungry," Rory said after a couple of hours spent in the lounge talking with his father. "We should go."

"What are you going to do now?" Brian asked.

"Dunno, really. Spend time in the space vortex, go where we're needed. Raise our daughter." Rory smiled down at the baby in his arms. "The Doctor wants more children too."

"You'll come visit."

"Of course we will, but I don't know when. It's complicated traveling in a time machine."

Brian nodded. "I'm still not sure how I feel about all of this, Rory, but if you're happy then that's what matters the most." He hugged his son carefully and leaned down to kiss his granddaughter. "I'll walk you out. Are you sure the Doctor is back?"

"No, but if he's not I can give him a call." Rory stepped out into the midday sun and glanced towards the TARDIS. "He's there, the lights are on. We'll keep in touch, Dad."

"See you soon."

Rory adjusted the bag on his shoulder and started towards the TARDIS with a small smile gracing his face. He really did feel like he was going home. He felt like eyes were watching him and looked around, but didn't see anyone. The doors to the TARDIS opened for him and he slipped inside. "Doctor?"

The ship started the dematerilization process on her own. Rory blinked. "Okay, that's new and a little freaky," he said. "Come on, Sarah Rose, let's find your daddy then."

Rory checked the kitchen, library, pool, wardrobe, their room and the bath area with no luck. He was just about to give up and go back to the kitchen to get one of the bottles they kept there for emergencies, when the TARDIS changed the hallway and showed a door that Rory had never seen before. "Okay. Thanks, sexy," he said with a shrug. He pushed the door open and stepped into a garden. "Doctor?"

"Rory."

"Where are you?"

"By the pond. Turn left and follow the path. You'll find it."

Rory wasn't sure what his lover was doing in, what he assumed, was the missing garden, but Sarah Rose was really getting cranky and needed to eat. "Hey, I'm guessing it didn't go too great with Amy?" He sat down next to his lover. "She's hungry."

"Hello Sarah Rose," the Doctor said softly. He took her and got her settled. "Did you have fun meeting your granddad? He's a nice man, isn't he?"

"You want to talk about it?"

"When she's asleep."

"Fair enough. So, this is the famous garden is it? Where's the horse?"

"He's around here somewhere," the Doctor said. "There's about two miles of garden here, plenty of room for a good run. The TARDIS must have decided it was time to bring it back."

"Speaking of the TARDIS, did you know that she took off on her own right after I was back inside?" Rory asked.

The Doctor nodded. "I had her programmed to return to the time vortex once you and Sarah Rose were safely back on-board."

"What if my dad had been with us?"

"Then we'd still be on Earth." The Doctor looked over at Rory. "I'm going to be installing some new safety features over the next few days, features to keep you and Sarah Rose safe. I have a lot of enemies in the universe, Rory, and I don't want anything happening to either of you."

"Can I help?"

"I'll let you know. There we go, sound asleep. Just a long day for her, lots of excitement," the Doctor said fondly. "Let's tuck her in and then we can talk."

"Dad wants us to come back as often as we can, Doctor," Rory commented as they left the garden and went back into the halls of the TARDIS. "He's still upset with me, but he says that as long as I'm happy he'll come to terms with everything. He has always really liked Amy."

"He'll be good for her, a friend who can understand what she's going through," the Doctor said. He put Sarah Rose into her crib and pulled the light blanket up to her stomach. "Sexy, Rory and I need to talk about a few things. Will you monitor Sarah Rose for me, please?"

"We could just buy baby monitors, you know."

"What are they?"

"Little two way radios that let you hear your baby when you're in another room."

"Why should we want something like that? The TARDIS is a better monitor than anything we could buy, and she's smart enough to know what to do," the Doctor smiled. "Where do you want to go to talk?"

"Pool?"

"All right."

"Doctor, I haven't seen you like this in a while. What happened?"

The Doctor sighed and looped an arm around Rory's shoulder. "I probably shouldn't have gone to talk to Amy today," he said. "It might have been better to allow her a little time on her own to think and grieve before I turned back up in her life."

"What did she say?"

"She lashed out, much as she did with you," the Doctor said. He pushed open the pool door and started towards the changing area. "I think telling her the truth about me, about Sarah Rose, was a mistake, but I wanted her to know everything."

"Doctor, you have every right to talk about our daughter," Rory said. "You're not telling me everything though, are you?"

"No." The Doctor sat down on one of the blankets and lay back. "Amy called me a creature, Rory. A creature. Me. One of the most advanced beings in the universe, a master of time and space and she called me a creature."

"Shhhh, hey, you're not," Rory said. He sat down so he was facing his lover and leaned over him, resting a hand by the Doctor's far hip. "Humans do that, Doctor. When they're in extreme pain, they lash out trying to hurt others around them. You are brilliant."

"Yes, of course I am, it's how I was born," the Doctor said. "Oh, you mean the other way. Thank you, Rory. You're not just saying that because I carried your daughter, are you?"

"Never." He leaned over and kissed the Doctor softly. "There was no way we could have known how Amy was going to react to the news about Sarah Rose. I had hoped she would take it a little better than this, but I guess it was just too much."

"I think the too much was when she asked what I was going to do when you got older."

"Doctor, you didn't."

"I did. I wasn't going to lie to her, Rory. Not about something that I love so much." He reached up and ran a hand over Rory's face. "How can I love you so much when I didn't realize it before?"

"Love is mysterious, Doctor," Rory said. He settled down, letting his head rest on his lover's chest. "I'm not going to grow another heart, am I?"

"No. No, that would require surgery. But you will be able to carry children, Rory, if you want to," the Doctor said. "Though I don't really recommend it if you weren't born to it."

Rory smiled. "I'll let you be the mum, Doctor," he said. "Maybe someday I'll want to experience that joy, but for now, I'm happy like this."

"So am I, Rory. So am I."


End file.
